Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

When I heard this movie was coming out, I wanted to see it, but apparently it sprinted into theaters and then out the exit just as quickly.Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a bit different than the typical teen movie in that it involves an atypical hero with an atypical friendship (although Greg won't even call it a friendship), and a somewhat unlikely heroine as well, although dying teens, a la The Fault in Our Stars, is a classic dramatic device. But with Me and Earl . . . , there's something a bit different going on. I mean, even the name of the film is a bit goofy and yet, at the same time, straightforward. And that's kind of how the movie goes. A bit off the wall and yet conventional.Greg is a white middle-class kid in his senior year living in an interesting working-class Pittsburgh neighborhood. Things are going as well as he could have hoped but you get the sense that Greg does just enough to get by. As a hobby, Greg and his friend Earl, a straight-talking African American teen who lives on the edge of Greg's neighborhood, make films and have done so since their friendship began as elementary school children. But Greg won't call it a friendship; he prefers "coworker," because, as Earl explains in the film, Greg just can't seem to commit.As a favor to his mom, who lays a bit of a guilt trip on Greg, he begins hanging out with a girl named Rachel soon after Rachel learns she has leukemia. The two are barely acquaintances in school (but isn't everyone with Greg?) and their friendship doesn't get off to a great start, as Greg tells Rachel straight out that he's coming over as a favor to his mom. But Rachel doesn't have a lot of options for communing with kids her own age after getting sick (it's hard enough for adults to know what to say to the dying, let alone teens) so the two start in on a friendship--or the three, rather, as Earl is a part of it too.As suggested by Rachel's friend as a way to do something nice for her before she dies, as everyone is assuming she will, Greg reluctantly agrees to make a film for Rachel. But what? Earl's and Greg's films are, shall we say, unconventional? They take classic films, rework the title into something ludicrous, and make a parody of the movie. Midnight Cowboy becomes 2:48 p.m. Cowboy, A Clockwork Orange is A Sockwork Orange (whose characters are sock puppets, of course), Apocalypse Now becomes A Box o' Lips, Wow, and the like. You get the drift--not Oscar-worthy stuff. So making a film for Rachel, who enjoys watching Greg and Earl's films, is an enormous task for Greg, who never seems to want to give his all.This movie was a big winner at the Sundance Film Festival but not well received in theaters. Maybe because it faded to black as soon as the opening shots began to roll. But it's definitely worth seeing and most viewers will find something to like about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. It's a tearjerker for sure, but the melancholy grabs you in the same unconventional way as the rest of the film.

Mighty good movie! Because of a similar situation in my life as a teenager I very much can relate to this movie -- it brought back a lot of memories, laughter, and tears from my life of more than 50 years ago. It's essentially a story of a shy high school kid, Greg, who wants everyone to accept him but yet does not want to be a part of any group of his peers. Basically an intelligent kid who is something of a recluse. He has at the beginning of the movie just one good friend, Earl, and Greg wants to keep it that way. But he ends up, initially against his will, befriending a classmate, Rachel, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He doesn't ever admit it openly, but he and Rachel becomes very special to him and inseparable as her disease progresses. The movie is billed sometimes as a comedy of sorts, a humorous movie. Yes, there are some comedic scenes but I think the movie is more of some sort of romance that will never be consummated. Sad, but also triumphant, at the end,

It’s not like the others. You really will love this movie. It’s full of charm and wit and real thoughts and feelings, and what we can choose to do with our time and what we leave behind. Without spoiling it, that’s sufficient. Enjoy the show

This review contains spoilers.A thoroughly enjoyable movie, and I would recommend it.That being said, although the movie avoids a few stereotypes and tropes common to teen coming of age movies, it feels the need to hammer home the idea that it is actively trying to do so. I found it somewhat off-putting to have the narrator actively discuss the trope, then point out how it doesn't occur. It was cute the first time, but the occasional reminders somewhat took me out of the moment at various points. Instead of allowing the viewer to observe the relationship and draw his/her own conclusions, the narrator flat out tells us the way the movie plot will go. The "if this was another romance... but it's not" moments were a bit too heavy handed. It's not as clever as the movie wants it to be.While avoiding some of the more evident tropes, the movie falls into a few more without apology. The rough and tumble, wise best friend (who conveniently explains all the protagonist's issues in one fell swoop), the awkward, yet kindhearted loner protagonist, the extreme sense of alienation that the protagonist feels, the silly caricatures of the goth and the rapping drug dealer, the seemingly eccentric teacher who empathizes and manages to impart some heartfelt advice... It's not a terrible thing to have characters like this. They do help to move the plot along, and tie everything in rather nicely. It just seems odd for a movie to talk down on one common theme, and then just easily fall into the others.The acting was well done. There's nothing I can really say, or feel like I would be able to say, that would do the acting justice. I enjoyed nearly everyone on-screen. Even my complaints about Earl being an extremely convenient plot device didn't detract from RJ Cyler's performance. He towed the line between street-wise and dork consistently well throughout. I was a delight to watch Cooke's more subtle and reserved Rachel play off of Mann's awkward Greg. I'm... very bad at describing why I liked good acting. It was just... very believable.I enjoyed the musical selections, and the way the movie was shot.The only reason this isn't a perfect review is because the movie tried too hard to tell you that it was different. I can see how, since the movie was narrated by a teenager, that it was possibly intentional, in order to further drive home the sense of teenage awkwardness ("Hey, I'm telling you a story, but it's different, because I'm different"), but... it just didn't jive well with me. If that was the intention, that the narrator was coloring the entire movie with his perception, sure. That would explain some of the more caricatured characters. If that was the intention though, I find it hard to believe that more things weren't so exaggerated or one-dimensional.It's still a very enjoyable movie, and I would recommend it.